NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

It was an absolute pleasure to welcome Paul and Bridget James to the arable plant fields of Langley Vale today. We walked far and wide across the area and managed to find most of the notable species that we had targeted, including Night-flowering Catchfly, Blue Pimpernel, Field Gromwell, Field Woundwort and Red Hemp-nettle. The dry spring and early summer has certainly taken its toll on many species, with some crisped and stunted, while others that we expected to be in full flower were already clearly over. However, a most enjoyable day was had and it now remains for us three intrepid botanists to start picking all of the grass seeds out of our socks and footwear... Field Woundwort Red Hemp-nettle Round-headed Rampion Scarlet Pimpernel (blue flowered)

Scarlet Pimpernel of the blue-flowered form We've reached number two in the countdown of my 10 most enjoyable natural history events of the past five years. 2. Arable overload Nationally rare plants within a couple of miles from home is not a prize that is bestowed upon too many naturalists, but when the site that they occur on is opened up for access - and then proves to be an even better site than first thought - it is the stuff of botanical dreams. For the past five years I have had the absolute pleasure of visiting such a place. Langley Vale Farm occupied a large part of the chalk downland of Walton Downs. It was farmed sensitively and maintained a tremendous arable flora. For many years just a couple of footpaths crossed this land, with access onto the fields prohibited, but there were one of two spots where a wander along a field-edge could be made. And then, in 2014, the farm was put up for sale and purchased by The Woodland Trust (WT). The reaction to the buyer was...

It was only four years ago that Red Hemp-nettle was discovered at Langley Vale by Caroline Bateman. This is a species that I have a great fondness for, a plant that I normally associate with the shingle beaches of Dungeness and Rye Harbour (where I had seen it before) - so when this population was discovered in Surrey, it was a must to visit. Annual trips along to this 'weedy' strip of north downs farmland are a pleasure, and the plant appears to be doing well. I counted 36 robust flowering specimens yesterday evening, all - bar one - in a small compact area.

Since my return from Cornwall I've been a lost soul. The Surrey downs are just not hacking it for birding (they only ever do in short, sharp shocks). My time spent at Canons Farm and Priest Hill has been time wasted, so this afternoon I took myself off to Epsom and Walton Downs and - hey presto - things seem an awful lot better. The birding wasn't exactly a match for Spurn and Fair Isle, but there was enough (at a local level) to feel vindicated, with a Hobby, 2 Red Kite, a covey of eight Red-legged Partridge and a handful of Chiffchaffs. This area has potential, but there again I say that about almost everywhere. Non avian highlights were a robust, healthy plant of Red Hemp-nettle on Langley Bottom Farm (above), a Hornet dwarfing a bog-standard wasp on a fallen apple (below) and the magnificent stand of Blue Globe-thistle that was full of butterflies, including a few Holly Blue (bottom).

Common Poppy in profusion, Langley Bottom Langley Bottom, Langley Vale, call it what you like - Walton Downs would do - the farmland that blankets much of this area has had a lot of coverage from me over the past few years. To recap: this farm was put up for sale and purchased by the Woodland Trust some three years ago. They plan to release the area into the public domain as a woodland reserve and intend to plant up a great deal of the open farmland, in so doing connecting existing copse and woodland together. So far, so good you may think - after all, private farmland is going to become countryside for the public to access and enjoy. Yes and no. Langley Vale has been farmed sympathetically down the ages, with a tremendous arable flora present as a consequence. It is like a botanical time capsule. When the Woodland Trust released their plans there was a great deal of fuss created by the counties botanists - why plants common trees on top of rare flowers? Meetings were arranged, ...

Langley Vale Farm was awash with the colour red this morning, as a number of the fields that have been allowed to 'rewild' have found that the Common Poppy has taken a liking to them. In a few corners Opium Poppy is the dominant species, and in between this festival of poppies are huge numbers of Common Field Speedwell, Scarlet Pimpernel, Field Pansy, Black Bindweed... I could go on. Needless to say, it is a visual feast. Also on show (and carrying on the red theme) were a minimum of nine Red Hemp-nettles (below), freshly coming into flower. This is a screaming rarity in the county.

I couldn't help but visit Langley Vale Farm this morning to see how the fields are looking from the point-of-view of such arable gems as Red Hemp-nettle (from this very farm last summer). There is good news. The fields south of Nohome Farmhouse have been shallowly ploughed - the stubble and grass clumps from my last visit have gone. Now, I am no ecologist, and cannot possibly predict whether this in itself is enough to enable the arable flora to freely flower, but it is certainly better than the state of the fields a couple of weeks ago. This is the bottom of the field immediately east of Nohome Farmhouse, which has also had a similar treatment - the edge up against the hedgerow is where Cat-mint and Narrow-fruited Cornsalad can be found. Last year this area was swamped with grass and both were hard to find. The top of the very same field. This is very recent tree planting, which has not, so far, been stretched all that far down the field. I do hope that it will be s...

2016 botanical highlights I adopted a rather laid-back approach to looking for plants this year. There were no target species named and no worthy aims, just a case of observing whatever I came across. There are downsides to this casual approach - unless I am keeping a list for a site I tend not to identify 'hard-to-do' species, so a whole raft of crucifers, grasses, roses and willows (to name but a few) were left well alone. Last year saw a great local flowering of several species, particularly orchids. This was not repeated in 2016. However, there were some breathtaking botanically induced scenes, and these will be dealt with in a future post. So, what were the stand-out moments? I've chosen three... Literary Bird's-nests At the end of 2015 I was contacted by Jon Dunn, Shetland-based 'virtual-friend', author and blogger. He had been commissioned to write a book about the UK's orchids and was wondering if I would like to assist him in his search for a de...

Last week, whilst wandering along the top of the beach at Sidmouth, I spied several 'fleshy' knotgrass plants lying prostrate on the shingle. I had no camera, no eyeglass, no nothing. I suspected that they might be Ray's Knotgrass, a species that I have only seen once before (further east along the coast at Charmouth). It was a hot day, there were holiday-makers sitting on their towels only feet away from the plants in question and I didn't want to invade their space to collect a piece for later identification. So I left them, but felt that if they were Ray's, then it was something that might just be noteworthy. I wouldn't be going back to Sidmouth any time soon, but I knew of a 'blogging virtual friend' who lived right on the doorstep... I sent an email to Karen Woolley, author of the excellent blog Wild Wings and Wanderings . She has a deep interest in botany, soon went along to have a look, and indeed they were Ray's and a tick for her to boot! ...

I don't need an excuse to return to Langley Vale Farm, home to a fine array of arable plant rarities. Compared to last year, my visits in 2016 have been not as frequent. Some field margins have been specifically spared the planting of crops to hopefully benefit the plants and, to a certain extent, this has delivered. This morning I luckily bumped into local botanist Dennis Skinner. He kindly informed me that Red Hemp-nettle, a species discovered here two summers ago, was showing once again. I know this plant from the shingle beaches of Dungeness and Rye, but not from arable Surrey - it is not common anywhere, and certainly not in my home county. I needed no encouragement to go and look for the three plants reported as being present. I found them easily... Apart from Small Toadflax and Sharp-leaved Fluellen, there was no representation from the other rare arable plants present. I did come across a few strikingly pale-pink Scarlet Pimpernel flowers. These didn't appear to...

Sunday saw me head south to Rye Harbour. I don't know why my visits to this part of East Sussex are so infrequent - I really enjoy going there. The enclosure above can be found west of the disused lifeboat station and contains two rare species of plant - Least Lettuce and Red Hemp-nettle. The latter is surprisingly hard to see considering the showy red flower, but there was enough of it inside (and just outside) the compound to make it hard to miss on this occasion. As for the former, well; a scrawny, dull, shy flowerer that sometimes can be prostrate on the shingle is never going to shout out it presence. Yesterday however, I did find a single plant close to the fencing. It wasn't flowering, but it was, after all mid-afternoon - they are best in the morning. The Red Hemp-nettle above was found much closer to the river, a single plant all on its own. I have seen this species at Rye in small amounts anywhere from the river along the beach almost to Winchelsea. Apart from...